Stainless steel of Son Ha International Joint Stock Company. Son Ha is one of Vietnamese companies exporting steel products to the US. Photo SHI

HA NOI (Biz Hub) – Three US enterprises have asked their nation to apply anti-dumping measures against stainless steel pipe from Viet Nam, said the latter's Ministry of Industry and Trade. Thailand and Malaysia were also on the list.

The US enterprises's complaint said that 2012 statistics showed Viet Nam exported 4,627 tonnes of stainless steel pipe to the US, which was 6.61 per cent of the US import market, earning US$16.3 million.

The complaints are a further burden on an already bleagured export sector. In the last two years, Viet Nam's steel industry has had to defend five anti-dumping cases and two anti-subsidy cases originating from the US, Brazil, Thailand and Indonesia.

The main targets were carbon steel pipe exporters and coat-hanger exporters to the US. Fortunately, the US investigation results, announced at the end of 2012, meant Viet Nam's carbon steel pipes would not be levied anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tarriffs.

According to the WTO Trade Remedy Council, enterprises facing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy charges had to put a lot of time, effort and money into getting legal advice, preparing evidence and answering investigators' questions.

The country's steel sector had no experience in appealing against anti-dumping and anti-subsidy decisions, and so faced great difficulty with so many cases in such a short time.

Earlier this year, Tran Tuan Nghiep, general director of Huu Lien Asia, one of Vietnamese companies under investigation in the US regarding dumping and subsidies on carbon steel pipes, said the US was a main market in his company's long-term strategy.

Nghiep said the steel market's price competition was so fierce that if enterprises were levied a small percentage more, they would be unable to survive. If Vietnamese enterprises were hit with high taxes or levies, they would have no chance in the US market. -- VNS